In previous OS News articles, I described how mature computers
up to ten years old can be
refurbished and made useful. One
article identified and evaluated different approaches to
refurbishing. This article tells how to performance tune a mature
Windows computer to make it serviceable again. I hope it will interest
anyone who wants to tune Windows.

Even better, if the old machine is just being used for compatibility reasons, just don't connect it to the internet. I have a old Pentium 2 Windows 98 machine that is used on occasion for running dos software and its still running just fine even after 11 years. No internet = no virus or malware of any kind, and no anti-virus software to clog up the works.